Tag: Entree

This instalment of my food adventures in Singapore will be about all the western style vegan restaurants I visited. Initially when I was planning my trip to Singapore I was quite adamant that I would only eat at eateries that served local fare however once I began researching vegan restaurants I found so many amazing places I couldn’t pass them up. The lure of vegan waffles and extraordinary sounding burgers got to me!

Veganburg

The name itself makes it sound like a vegan heaven! The burger options were all unlike the ones available in Australia. Even the sides were unusual such as soursop juice, seaweed fries and broccoli pieces!

Hawaiian Teriyaki – I ordered this burger and while I enjoyed it, I found it a bit too sweet for my liking. The combination of pineapple and teriyaki sauce was a bit too much for me. I think a vegan mayo would have been perfect. There was onion present in my burger despite no mention of it in the product description or picture. Usually this wouldn’t have been an issue but my partner cannot eat onion. The pineapple also still had the core in it.Cracked Mayo – This is the burger my partner ordered which I had a sample of. It was pretty simple but delicious, the patty was crunchy as opposed to my grilled patty. We both agreed that we preferred the crunchy patty.Seaweed fries – These were super crunchy and moreish however they needed some salt.Soursop juice – The juice was extremely sweet, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a cordial.

Brownice

This establishment has two locations, we visited the one on east coast road. There isn’t much seating so I’d advise getting there early. We arrived around 6pm for dinner and the place was full pretty soon after.

White Truffle fries – We ordered this entree as I had never tried truffles and we both love cheese and fries. While I enjoyed this dish, there was barely any parmesan on it. It wasn’t really worth it for the price tag and if I had gone back I would’ve ordered the cheezy fries instead. Truffle Porcini Funghi pizza – My partner and I usually order one main each and then share. This was my choice and I absolutely loved it. It was so amazingly creamy! The mushrooms were cut up very small which at first I didn’t like but as a whole it worked well on the pizza.BBQ Chicken pizza – This pizza was fairly sweet from the BBQ sauce and it was like a standard BBQ chicken pizza. The chicken pieces were nice and it had olives on it too which was unexpected twist.Waffles with Chocolate French Kiss ice cream – The waffle was much larger and thicker than I had expected. It was very crispy on the outside but surprisingly nice and soft on the inside which I enjoyed. For it’s size, it definitely needed two scoops of ice cream.

NomVNom

On this particular day my partner and I were both feeling pretty unwell. We decided to stay in our airbnb apartment and just order in some take away. We used ubereats to order, there’s only one picture as I was feeling lazy!

Sweet potato fries – The fries were pretty under cooked and a bit under seasoned which was disappointing as I had been looking forward to them.Corn soup – This soup was delicious and just what I needed to make me feel better. It was creamy, I’m not sure what kind of “cream” was used but it wasn’t coconut which I really liked as that’s the usual vegan default.QQ Cheezy burger – This was my burger and I thought the nut cheeze was phenomenal! The patty was listed as steamed mushroom but was fried which was disappointing.Potato Croquette burger – My partner ordered this burger hoping for just a potato patty as opposed to the potato and veg patty that it was. He didn’t enjoy his burger however I’m not sure if it was because he was sick though!

I had never considered visiting Singapore but when last year Jetstar had a buy one get one free flight deal, I thought it was too good of an opportunity to pass up. I had no one to go with but I decided that it was time I experienced travelling solo anyway. I booked the trip to coincide with my 25th birthday and began to plan. When I booked the flights I had just started dating my partner and months later he decided to also join me on this trip.

A week before I left for Singapore I started to wonder how easy it would be to find vegan food over there. I began to compile a list of eateries and to my surprise, Happy Cow had SO many veg*n restaurants listed! During the 8 days that I was in Singapore, not once did I eat at a non veg*n restaurant, that’s how easy it was.

This post is about what I ate at the Fortune Centre. The Fortune Centre is multi-level shopping plaza with at least 10 veg*n eateries inside. It also has a veg*n grocery store which is located on the ground floor. The restaurants I ate at were Herbivore and Gokul’s while at the Fortune Centre however I also had Hotcakes (dessert), Pine Tree Cafe and Vegan Deli on my list that I unfortunately didn’t get the chance to visit.

Gokul’s Vegetarian Restaurant

*Note – Gokul’s Vegetarian Restaurant has a few stores, this is the one at the Fortune Centre and is not to be confused with the one in Little India which has over 100 menu items. I assumed there was only one Gokul’s however this is one of the smaller stores and not everything from their small menu was available when we went up to order. I recommend getting there early, it gets packed!

Mutton Murtabak – This was probably one of my favourite dishes that I tried in Singapore. The bread was really flaky and the filling was delicious. The mutton was slightly chewy but I enjoyed it. The dish came with a sauce which was flavourful and not overly spicy, just what it needed.Rava masala Dosa – I suspect we were served a regular masala dosa as opposed to the rava one we ordered. It was like any other dosa I had tried before, nothing special really.Mamak Mee Goreng – I personally found this dish a bit too bland for my liking however my partner seemed to enjoy it. It came with a sambal on the side which was super spicy and a nice touch. The flavour was improved when I added the left over sauce from the murtabak.Mysore Mutton – The mutton was the same fake meat used in the murtabak. The sauce was delicious and well spiced. Definitely needed some bread or rice to go with it though.

All this plus a can of coke came to $25.50 SGD.

Mamak Mee Goreng

Herbivore

We visited Herbivore for my birthday dinner and we were both somewhat disappointed with the small size and high price of the dishes. The staff were lovely and attentive, constantly refilling our water glasses. Each table has an iPad which is used to order from the menu. The decor more upscale than the rest of the eateries in the fortune centre. Apologies for the lack of proper menu names, I can’t seem to find the menu online anywhere. I didn’t take many pictures either as it was quite dark inside so I ended up using my phone.

Miso soup – Just a regular miso soup with some nori and mushroom pieces.Gyoza – The gyoza filling was great however the wrappers were unlike any I’ve ever had while eating gyoza/dumplings. They were super crunchy and reminded me of spring roll wrappers.Teriyaki Chicken – The chicken was slightly burnt around the edges possibly from the sugary sauce but it was still quite tasty.Mushroom Skewers – I can’t remember what sauce was on the mushrooms but it was delicious and the mushrooms were nicely cooked.Meatball Maki – The standout dish of the night for me, the meatballs were fantastic. I couldn’t pick what they were made of, they weren’t seitan based. The nori which was wrapping the rolls was battered and deep fried which I thought was brilliant and not something I had experienced before.Tuna in Yam – This was our least favourite dish of the night, the tuna pieces were ok but the yam was extremely odd. It was very bland and watery, the texture was also unexpectedly stretchy.

All that set us back around $60 SGD and was our most expensive meal in Singapore.

For the past few weeks and especially over the Christmas break I’ve been craving pancakes. My partner is on a low FODMAP diet and I’m vegan so it was a challenge trying to find a recipe that we could both enjoy. We tried one with a premixed GF flour blend and it was an absolute disaster! They were super rubbery and very disappointing. I’ve been wanting to try aquafaba pancakes for months now however with my partners dietary requirements it seemed like it would not be possible. This all changed when I read a post in the aquafaba group on Facebook! A member posted that she had tried whipping up the liquid from a can of regular green peas and that it worked just like that of any other bean!

Here is my pancake recipe from the weekend. It was a bit of an experiment so it’s not GF, next time I’m going to attempt to make it 100% GF.

In a measuring jug whisk together the soy milk and lemon juice to make the buttermilk. Set aside for 5 minutes until it has curdled.

In a mixing bowl mix together the flours and baking powder.

In a separate smaller mixing bowl, whisk the aquafaba until frothy. Add the sugar and whisk until the sugar has incorporated.

Combine the aquafaba with the buttermilk and pour into the dry ingredients. Gently mix it all together with a spoon or spatula. Be careful not to overmix it, some lumps are perfectly fine. Let the batter rest for about 10 minutes.

Heat up a frying pan on medium heat and add a little bit of the vegan butter. Once the vegan butter has melted and is bubbling slightly, ladle in some batter. Smooth out the top of the pancake with the back of the ladle and cook for 2-3 minutes until bubbles form on top. Flip the pancake and cook for a further 1-2 minutes.

The other day while I was at the market, a bag of zucchini’s caught my eye. I was excited to see that it was only $1 for a large bag! I bought them with the intention of making zoodles however it is absolutely freezing in Melbourne and the idea didn’t excite me.

I created this recipe for breakfast however you could definitely have them as an entree or for lunch. They would be perfect served with some vegan sour cream or Greek yoghurt.

Grate the zucchini and add to a bowl. Mix in the remaining ingredients and combine well. The water from the zucchini should be enough to make it batter-like however if it is not, add a few drops of water.

Heat a small frying pan over a medium heat and add some olive oil. Place the batter into the centre of the frying pan and spread it into a circle.

Cook for about 5 minutes and then flip to cook the other sides for a further 5 minutes. See notes for flipping technique.

*Note – Chickpea flour is also called besan or gram flour. I buy mine from the local Indian grocery store

I found the easiest way to flip the pancake was to slide it on to a plate and then turn the plate over the frying pan